Assalamualaikum, and a belated Selamat Hari Raya to those who celebrate it.
Yep, it's been the second week of raya already. Just putting some life updates here to look back to in the future, aside from the quitting from work thing.
Currently being a part-time research assistant for my university lecturer, meaning I spend the other half of the time questioning the meaning of life and having existential breakdowns at home. Kidding. I've been helping out since January, when I followed my lecturer and other researchers to Orang Asli villages in Gombak and Hulu Langat, in which we also interviewed more than a dozen of them in regards to their access to healthcare. It was an enlightening experience of their lifestyle and of Malaysia in general. Am reflecting that they deserve so much better, and wishing that the government, those in power, to actually sit down and talk to them about their concerns and struggles rather than just implementing things with no clue of what's going on in real life. Of watching live jampi rituals and crossing rivers, I am thankful for this experience, and I can't believe I survived transcribing over 400 minutes of our interviews with them hahah. Am also helping out with another research involving faith and illness from this US grant by the John Templeton Foundation, am excited to start out with this as well up until October.
I don't think I mentioned this before, but I volunteered with this mental health organization called Nyawa back in October for their mental health policy case competition that was organized in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and Perdana Fellows Alumni Association. I was pretty thankful to be picked to work directly under the Project Director and was involved in drafting the policy case prompts and the marking rubrics, with feedback received from policy experts. I know the final round of the competition was back in January, but I only managed to watch the full thing yesterday, and I was in awe and inspired by the amazing policies recommended by the finalists, and their passion to improve the mental health state of Malaysia from various perspectives including law, economics, human resources and public health.
So yeah, after the competition ended, I was recruited to join Nyawa permanently, which was pretty cool considering the potato I am. Involved in two events so far, one being a private art exhibition held in Kongsi KL in March, where the artists showcased mental health-related artworks. A lot of the people involved were young people who were in the filming industry, so it was also pretty amazing to be able to be around them and get a glimpse of their field and talking to them, getting to know how their life path and passion led them there. More about the event here: https://www.thevibes.com/articles/culture/55639/building-mental-health-resilience-through-young-artists-works
Aside from that event, during Ramadan, Nyawa also had a booth for Riuh Raya in Sentul Depot. It was a very tiring yet satisfying experience, and we had around 200 people that visited our booth for both days. Probably the closest encounter I have in my life to so many famous people, also managed to snap a picture with Syed Saddiq. But it was also nice to be able to catch up with friends who dropped by, like Aynn, Ilham, Hidayati, and Celine.
Leisure wise since the end of the year, of course I managed to watch almost every single Marvel release at the cinema, from Shang-Chi, to Eternals, to Spiderman No Way Home, and recently Dr Strange's Multiverse of Madness. Other than that, Batman and Everything Everywhere All at Once WERE SO GOOD!!! I also watched this Taiwanese movie called Till We Meet Again in the cinema, it was great too, although I don't miss the emotional implications behind watching it hahaha. Also watched American Psycho for the first time and I didn't expect to love it so much, it was.. funny.
My reading pace has been a bit slow. Ni lah Durrah, spend more time reading people's tweets and posts on Reddit rather than useful books, ish ish. Read Yasmin Ahmad's biography (?)/ book dedicated to her, the popular behavioral economics/psychology book Nudge, Sapiens by Yuval Harari and The Body Keeps the Score which talks about trauma. Am currently reading Reza Aslan's God: A Human History of Religion. Alain de Botton's School of Life is next on my wish list.
In a way, I managed to fulfill whatever self-care goals I set last year when I did Honours. Yes, I visited KLCC several times. Went for a facial treatment. Didn't go for massages, went for chiropractic treatments instead and had my spine being snapped hahahhaa. Painted. Went for counselling. Did other stuff like donate blood and visited the Muzium Negara.
Friends. Met up with university friends.. in university several times. Had our graduation ceremony last week, it was nice to be able to meet my Honours friends in real life for the first time. It was also nice to see faces I haven't seen since pre-COVID. Met my high school friends during Hidayati's sister's wedding last weekend as well, I'm so proud of where they are at now, all amazing working ladies already.
So I guess that's it? Honestly speaking, I am struggling a bit to let the days pass by just as it is, without overthinking about what will happen in the future, months, years, from now, which ends up with me being overwhelmed instead and do nothing... kind of counterproductive, I know. I hope to be able to take the days as it is, spend less time on social media, and just.. take it day by day? And accepting that life is just.. life, we all die in the end, maybe there isn't a bigger purpose, I don't know hahaha sorry if this is getting too serious.
Anyway, I completed my Master's application to study Clinical Psychology in UKM. There's like a, 0.05% chance of me being accepted, but who knows, a miracle might happen. I honestly do not know what to do if I get rejected, I guess it's a sign to just get a stable full-time job probably? We'll see.
Thanks for reading if you have made it this far. Been a bit sick lately, and it's good to be able to write something. Ending this with an article I wrote for International Womens' Day for SAKSI, an initiative by Women's Aid Organization to support gender-progressive journalism. Take a look here!
Have a great week, month, year, everyone.
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